Lesson video

Hi, everybody, it's Mr. Broome here with a lesson called Risks and Hazards from the Physical Training: Injury and Injury Prevention Unit.

This is a great lesson for anybody who's aspiring to teach PE one day, or maybe coach sport, or maybe even, already you are doing those things and you want everybody to have a safe environment so that they can enjoy their participation without the risk of injury.

This is gonna be really useful information for you if that's the case.

Let's have a look.

Okay, so by the end of today's lesson, you should be able to identify how the risk of injury can be minimised and understand the potential hazards found in a range of sports facilities.

And here are your keywords for today.

There are four of them.

They are risk, hazard, injury and personal protective equipment.

Pause the video here if you'd like to take a look at their definitions, but they are words you're going to become familiar with during the lesson.

And how about the structure of today's lesson? It's a three parter.

The first section is called identifying the appropriate level of competition.

Let's begin, shall we? Okay, so all sports carry some risk of injury, but there are several measures we can take to reduce the risk and prevent them from happening.

And we see these BMX riders here, don't we? They've taken a clear measure to reduce the risk of getting a head injury.

Laura says, what is done in your favourite sports to keep the performers safe and reduce the risk of injury? Maybe even pause a video here.

If you've got somebody nearby, you could have a conversation with them about what happens in their sports or physical activities and compare to yours.

Now, Laura has a bit of a dilemma here.

Laura says that she's in the under-11 basketball team, but her neighbour, Aisha, is in the under-16 team and she wants to know why can't I play with her team? We are talking here about appropriate level of competition.

So would it be appropriate for Laura to play an Aisha's basketball team? And if so, why? Perhaps you are thinking no, it's not appropriate for Laura to play an Aisha's basketball team, and if so, why not? Would it be inappropriate? We're gonna have a look at some reasons why that might be an inappropriate idea.

How about age categories? This is something every one of you I'm sure has come across before.

So in youth sport, age categories are often used to ensure participants are of similar age and size.

Here, we have an example in our photo of a school rugby game where the players are all of similar age, and judging by the picture, they are all of around similar size.

That will help to make sure that the competition is fair, won't it? It's particularly important in sports, like rugby in our picture, which involve physical contact.

You could probably have a year 7, play against a year 10 in badminton, and there wouldn't be any problem 'cause there's no risk of injury.

But in a game like rugby with lots of contact, you certainly want to keep people of around the same age.

An example here at the bottom says that in schools there may be a rugby team for each of the different year groups.

So you might have a year 7 rugby team, a year 9 rugby team, a year 11 rugby team and so on.

How about a different way of making sure that competition levels are appropriate? Sam has a question for you.

He says this is a fight between two heavyweights and what does that mean? Well, clearly we're talking about boxing here, aren't we? What does it mean if someone's a heavyweight? Let's have a look at this picture, which will help us to compare.

These two fighters are of similar size.

One's a bit taller, but they must be around the same size.

Now, they are not heavyweights, I can tell you that much.

They will be of a different weight, and actually boxing has 17 different weight classes to try to make sure that fighters are matched in terms of weight.

That's to make sure there's a fair competition, but also to make sure that there's no injuries caused by having mismatched opponents.

One heavyweight against one lightweight would result in one person having a lot more power than the other and therefore, possibly causing that lightweight an injury, due to that extra power.

Sofia says, would you expect these children in this ski school to attempt this freestyle aerial trick? So the children in the top photo, would they try the trick on the bottom photo? What do you think? Well, chances are they wouldn't, unless they're very highly skilled.

But because they're in the ski school, we can assume that they're at the very beginner stage of learning how to ski.

And therefore, we would not be expecting 'em to do something that's clearly at the elite level of skiing like this trick in the bottom picture.

So the point here is that you must make sure that you have enough experience and capabilities physically to attempt new skills to make sure that you reduce the risk of injury.

Trying to do something which is too advanced and too quickly might lead to an injury.

Can you imagine somebody who's a beginner skateboarder trying to do a flip like that on the concrete steps that this guy is? Clearly, that might lead to an injury because they haven't yet built up to the experience level that they would need to be able to do so.

More examples of how we can make sure that levels of competition remain appropriate.

Jun has a question.

Why do people in martial arts wear coloured belts? And here we see two kick boxers wearing black belts and that's deliberate.

Black belts will fight against other black belts.

Well, experience in some combat sports such as judo and TaeKwonDo is represented by coloured belts.

So normally, black belt means that you are very, very experience and highly skilled.

That ensures that people of similar skill and experience compete against each other.

So we have in that top photo, two people fighting wearing red belts because they are of similar experience and skill level and that ensures that everything's going to be safe.

We wouldn't expect one of those boys with the red belt to be fighting somebody in a black belt.

Okay, so here's a check for understanding on what we've talked about so far during today's lesson.

Which of the following are methods used to reduce the risk of injury? Is it A, matching fighters in boxing according to weight, B, matching tasks to the experience of the athlete, C, encouraging athletes to try skills beyond their capabilities, or D, using age categories for competition in youth sport? More than one of those might be the correct answer.

Have a look.

Well done if you spotted, actually three of them were correct answers there.

Let's have a look at the answers.

So A, matching fighters in boxing according to weight.

Absolutely, we've talked about how boxing has 17 different categories.

Matching tasks to the experience of the athlete.

Okay, again, if we think back, we said how the ski school students would not be trying something so difficult as a ski jump or aerial trick.

And D, using age categories for competition in youth sport like your year 7 rugby team or your under-18 hockey team.

Well done if you spotted that there were three correct answers there.

Now, moving on.

Here, we have several examples here of how many activities are enjoyed by male and female participants at the same time.

We have ice skating, cricket, Pilates, and tennis, all sports where females and males can participate together.

However, in the interest of safety, many sports, especially those which involve contact will have separate gender competitions.

And the example here is football.

We can see the contact there already, can't we, in that first picture? And so in football we have a female competition and a male competition.

Quick check for understanding.

Which of the following activities are males and females not allowed to compete alongside each other.

Is it A, tennis B, rugby union, or C boxing? Well done if you said that both B, rugby union and C, boxing, are sports where we have gender categories.

Whereas in tennis, playing as mixed doubles with a male and a female on the same team against a female and a male on the other team is a very common format of the game.

Well done if you said B and C.

Here's the practise task for this section.

Here we have two people, Izzy and Jacob.

Let's learn a little bit about both of them.

Izzy is 9 and she's a beginner, and Jacob is 16 and he has five years of experience in what we don't yet know, but let's have a look.

So Izzy and Jacob both attend the same boxing club.

Okay, so they're both learning to box.

Izzy wants to spar with Jacob, which means to practise her fighting with Jacob, but the coach says there's no way that's happening, there could be an injury.

I'd like you to identify three reasons why the coach might not want Izzy and Jacob to spar.

Why was it that they said no way that's happening? There are more than one reason why the coach might want to keep Izzy and Jacob apart in training.

What can you think of? Pause the video here and I'll be back in a moment with some suggested answers.

Okay, so back to Izzy and Jacob.

Izzy wants to spar with Jacob, but the coach said no.

Why? The coach might have believed that the age gap is too big and at junior level, they should be sparring with people of their own age.

There's a seven year age gap here, which is a huge gap, and at this age that's gonna make a big difference.

Jacob is much more experienced, he has five years more experience in Izzy.

That means his skill level will be much higher than Izzy's and it will be, possibly, too easy for him and too difficult for her.

It's not an appropriate level of competition.

There will also be a big difference in weight, which is important in boxing isn't it? We've talked about that already.

That would lead to Jacob having an unfair advantage because he's a lot bigger and heavier, more powerful.

And so they should spar with similar sized people.

And the final reason the coach might have said is that males and females don't spar together.

Boxing has a gender classification.

Males fight against males, and females fight against females and that might be another reason.

So there's four possible reasons.

I asked you to write three.

Well done if you matched three of those.

Okay, so the next part of today's lesson is about reducing the risk of injury during participation.

Let's have a look.

Jun's got a question for you, alongside this image of cricket.

And he says, what can you see these cricket players wearing, which will help them avoid injuries? Have a little look before I reveal some answers.

Maybe you notice that they're both wearing a helmet, gloves, the batter has on arm pads and they both have on leg pads.

And that's because that red ball that you can see on the right-hand side of the picture is very hard indeed and it comes very quickly at the batter from the bowler's hand.

And so it becomes a very dangerous object which could cause injury.

Here's a very similar example from the sport of softball.

Look at all the padding there.

We call this personal protective equipment and I might refer to it as PPE.

And it's vital to reduce the risk of injury, particularly in high risk sport, where small hard objects are flying around at high speed.

In most cases, PPE absorbs the impact of hitting the ground, hard objects or other people.

Laura's question to you, what personal protective equipment do you wear when playing your favourite sports or physical activities? This might be another opportunity to talk to somebody who plays a different sport to you and compare what you wear in your sport to what they wear in theirs.

Quick check for understanding.

What cause of injury does protective equipment such as helmets and padding help reduce the risk of? Is it A, injuries caused by impact with an object or a person? B, injuries caused by over training? Is it C, injuries caused by not warming up properly or D, injuries caused by a poor training plan? All these are valid reasons why people get injured, but which of those does PPE help to reduce the risk of? Well done if you recognised that A was the answer here.

PPE generally helps us to reduce the impact with objects, or people or maybe even the floor.

So there are many examples of personal protective equipment used in different sports and physical activities.

I'm going to give you some examples here, but there are so many things I could have said.

How about helmets and gloves in wheelchair racing to protect the hands and head.

Knee pads in ice skating, should you fall on that rock hard surface.

And shin pads in football, PPE that lots of people have in their cupboards I'm sure.

How about footwear? Izzy says, why does shoes worn for different sports look different? And she's right isn't she? Because we have three different sports footwear here and they all look slightly different from each other.

What do you think? Well, all these sports footwear are designed, first of all, to help you to participate in a sport and perform well.

But they also have aspects of the design which are there to make sure that you avoid injuries.

So in football, the studs help to grip onto the pitch, especially muddy football pitches sometimes, but that's gonna help aid your performance, but it's also going to stop you from falling and be able to grip onto a muddy pitch, which obviously could cause injuries.

How about the running shoes? They don't have studs, do they? They don't need studs, but they have their own features.

One of the features of running shoes is that they have a cushioned sole to reduce the impact on the joints.

If you go road running for example, you are constantly hitting your foot onto the floor, impact on the joints like your knee and your hips, while your feet are pounding on that hard floor.

And so the cushioned sole is there to help reduce the impact on the joints and maybe avoid some overuse injuries, which are common in running.

And how about this basketball sneaker? That's a very different looking shoe, isn't it? Well one of the main features of basketball shoes are they have a high top or high profile to try and help the ankle support, which perhaps footballers and runners don't need.

Lots of basketball players get injuries on their ankles from falling and twisting their ankles and so that extra bit of support is there to try and reduce the amount of ankle injuries that basketball players get.

Quick check for understanding.

Which of the following are personal protective equipment used in some sports to prevent injuries? So A, a helmet.

B, a gum shield.

C, socks.

Okay, well done if you recognise that a helmet worn in such games as ice hockey, a gum shield worn in things such as hockey or boxing are both PPE.

Socks of course are won in lots of sports, but not for the purpose of PPE.

In some cases like in football they are there to hold the PPE in place like a shin pad, but they are not PPE on their own right.

Something else which we must consider, moving away from PPE, is how we lift and carry equipment.

Imagine that you go into a sports hall and your teacher asks you to move a heavy piece of gymnastics equipment, or a heavy crash mat, or a trampoline or something like that.

Now you shouldn't do that unless you've been shown how to do it and you understand how to do it without causing an injury because actually that's an activity that could really cause some serious injuries.

So let's have a look at some of the main points and I'd like you to think about this and remember, every time you lift something or carry something heavy.

Some things we need to remember is to maintain the correct posture throughout.

And the image is really helpful here to remember how it should look.

So let's focus on the guy in green T-shirt.

Look how he's bent his knees in the very left-hand side picture before lifting the item.

His knees are bent and it's helped him get right down low towards the item.

Whereas the guy in the red T-shirt has decided to use a back bend, an arch in his back to do so and his knees aren't really bent much at all.

Keep your back straight.

Again, the guy in green has good posture throughout and so you can see that straight back, whereas the arched back of the guy in the red means that he's much more likely to cause an injury to his back.

Keep the object close to your body, that will help to reduce the chance of injury.

And when you do the lifting, because you started with those knees bent, you then extend your legs and that will help to lift the item off the floor.

Not like the guy in the red T-shirt has, he's used his upper body and mainly his back muscles to lift the item off the floor.

Quick check for understanding based on what we've just talked about there, with lifting and carrying.

So lifting with correct posture can help to avoid back strains.

Is that true or false? Well done if you said true.

Of course it's true.

We know that lifting with correct posture is really important with heavy items, and the back is one of the most common areas where we might cause an injury, a strain in particular, if we do lift with a poor posture.

Arching your back like the guy in the red T-shirt was, rather than keeping it straight, puts too much pressure on those back muscles and it can lead to strains.

And that's an important thing to remember anytime you are asked to do any kind of lifting and carrying.

This is your practise task for this learning cycle, when we're looking at how we can reduce the risk of injury actually during the participation itself.

There are three pictures here I'd like you to look carefully at.

And for each picture identify a risk of injury to the performer based on what you can see.

Secondly, for each of those pictures, suggest a way in which the risk of injury could be reduced.

Pause the video here, write down your answers for all three pictures and I'll be back in a moment with some suggested answers.

Okay, let's begin with the hockey picture.

I think there's something really obviously dangerous about this picture, a real risk to one of the participants.

I hope you spotted it too.

So what might you have said? There is a clear risk that one of the players may get hit directly on the shin by a stick or the ball.

Generally, in hockey, PPE that you are expected to wear is shin pads.

One player here has got shin pads on, the other has not foolishly, and I'm surprised he's been able to play without them.

How could we reduce the risk of injury then in this picture? Well, the player should be made to wear shin pads to reduce the risk of injury.

How about the football example? What's the risk of injury here? Well, fairly obvious again, I think that the player in the blue shirt is committing a foul on the player in the black shirt.

There's no way his elbow should be in the face of the player with the black shirt.

This type of contact is not allowed in football and it could result in a facial injury.

How would we reduce that risk of injury? Well, the referee should award a foul and warn the player in blue.

That might even be in the form of punishment like a card, like a yellow or red card.

What that's going to do is make everybody aware that this is unacceptable, and against the laws of the game and should reduce the chance of that kind of action happening again.

Finally, our skateboarder.

What's the risk of injury to the skateboarder? Well, they could fall off the board and that would result or could result in many different types of injuries.

Could be fractures, could be concussions or abrasions.

Depends on how they land, and how high they fall from and where they, what part of their body lands first, I guess.

But one thing we certainly know is that this skateboarder is not wearing any PPE at all.

So the skateboarder could wear a helmet, and pads on their elbows and knees and that would reduce the risk of injuries should they fall.

That brings us onto the third and final section today, and that's on identifying hazards in various sports facilities.

Okay, so an important risk reduction method is checking the facilities before use.

We're talking about the spaces that you do your sport and your PE lessons in.

Lucas is looking at that artificial pitch there on the right with all its bald patches and thinking, imagine what injuries could happen playing on that pitch.

Clearly, it's not in great condition and it could be the cause of injury.

What kind of injuries do you think could happen on that pitch? We're gonna consider five different sports facilities, the kind of sports facility which I'm sure you've participated in many, many times.

Let's have a look.

So they are sports hall, playing fields, swimming pools, fitness centres and artificial outdoor areas.

You might have called them AstroTurf or something like that, but we're going to call it artificial outdoor area today.

Jacob's question is, what hazards might you find in a sports hall? Think about the sports hall in the picture.

Think about sports halls that you've played in before.

What are the hazards? What might cause an injury in a sports hall? Have a little think about that.

Maybe even pause the video here and jot down some answers.

So one of the things we should know about sports halls is they are multi-sport environments and many are used all day long.

Some sports halls will be used by a class at the very beginning of the school day, used throughout the school day and then in the evening, they're hired out to the general public until the late hours of the night.

So throughout the day, they've been used for various different sports.

For example, they might have had badminton courts there for an hour, and then a group comes in to do netball, and then in the next hour somebody comes in to do trampolining, and the equipment that's being used is being changed over and over again throughout the day.

Now all these changes of people and equipment coming and going in the sports hall can lead to trip hazards.

So imagine the group who finished their badminton lesson, somebody couldn't be bothered to put the badminton posts away properly in the cupboard where they belong, for example, and they left it out, and somebody could trip over it in the next session.

Slippage hazards.

Somebody drops their bottle of water and it goes all over the floor.

Water on that hard shiny sports hall floor would very quickly become a risk of slippage.

Equipment that gets moved day in day out is much more at risk of getting broken or damaged and that could therefore lead to an injury.

And as we discussed earlier, a lot of heavy equipment might be used in a sports hall such as a trampoline or gymnastics equipment, and if they're not lifted and carried properly during the changeover, could lead to several different types of injury.

Laura wants to know if playing fields have the same hazards as a sports hall.

What do you think about that? So sports halls are manmade facilities, but playing fields are not, they're much more natural.

And that means that they're more susceptible to wear and tear.

They are exposed to all the rain and sleet, and snow and whatever else is thrown at it by mother nature.

As a result of that, uneven surfaces can develop including potholes and mounds.

So you might return to a pitch that you thought was perfectly fine, two weeks later and it's been dug up by people in football boots, and rugby boots, and holes have appeared and whatnot.

So it's constantly changing its condition.

Something you'll find out there.

Some things like rugby posts and goalposts, they can become very dangerous if they're not maintained properly, okay.

They too, are left out, aren't they, to be rained on and snowed on and they can lead to serious injuries if they came apart and fell on somebody, for example.

And so they must be maintained properly.

One of the issues with playing fields is a lot of them are accessible to the public and people will use it to walk dogs on.

That means that things like litter, could be broken glass, even dog excrement might be a hazard that's found on the playing field that you wouldn't expect to find on many other kind of sports facilities.

Now swimming pools have more rules and regulations to follow than any other facility.

Andeep's wondering why is that? What do you think? Why do swimming pools have so many rules and regulations to follow? Well, in short, we have the risk of drowning in swimming, which we don't have in any of the other facilities.

And so clearly, this is somewhere that needs to be monitored very closely.

What hazards do we have around a swimming pool? What do you think? Well, we have non-swimmers or weak swimmers going in deep water where they can't swim.

They're not good enough to swim in that water yet.

We have people diving into shallow water, that's not allowed, but still people might do it.

There might not be lifeguards or first aiders on duty, and somebody gets into trouble and there's nobody there to save them.

Of course, one regular cause of injury in swimming pools is people slipping over or cutting themselves on corrected tiles.

There might be lots of equipment like floats, or water polo equipment or something else left out on the side of the pool, which can be tripped over.

Maybe poorly behaved people, like running.

There are rules that say you shouldn't run around the swimming pool, yet you see people running around it quite frequently.

And another one, overcrowding.

So too many people swimming for the number of teachers, so the teacher can't keep their eye on all the people who are in the pool swimming.

Lots of hazards found in a swimming, and there's lots more than have appeared on my list here.

Quick check for understanding.

We've looked at three facilities so far and which of them should be checked before use for the risk of slipping? Is it A, swimming pool? B, a sports hall, or C, a playing field? Okay, so A, swimming pool, lots of water there and the tiles around the edge can get very slippy.

And B, a sports hall.

Should something be spilled on the floor in a sports hall, it very quickly becomes a very slippy hazard.

However, C generally doesn't need checking for the risk of slipping.

However, at certain times of year when it's icy, it may well need checking for the risk of slipping.

So if you said, C, yeah, maybe you have a point.

We're gonna look at a fitness centre next.

They have lots of equipment such as dumbbells, medicine balls, resistance machines, all sorts.

And these present a danger of tripping and falling.

It's really important that fitness centres are kept tidy and equipment is returned once finished with.

People who don't return their equipment and they just leave it on the floor, create a hazard for other people to trip over.

So fitness centre equipment could cause serious injury of faulty.

Some of it's really heavy.

It should be checked daily.

Before using a gym, people should have an induction.

That means that they taught how to use the correct technique for lifting weights or how to use the resistance machines to make sure that they can use 'em safely.

And finally, if required, people should be supervised while using the equipment, particularly if they're inexperienced.

And we have this thing in fitness centres called spotting, which is when a partner will monitor the technique of somebody else and make sure that they're lifting the weights safely.

It's definitely something inexperienced users would benefit from.

Aisha says artificial outdoor areas must have the same risks as playing fields.

Does she have a point there? Do you think she's correct? So in some ways or many ways, Aisha is correct because artificial areas should be checked for things like litter and debris, okay.

Could be that members of the public can access it and leave things lying around.

They also generally house goalposts and they should be well maintained.

Again, they're left out exposed to rain, and snow and sleet.

They should be checked regularly that they haven't got rusty and damaged and could potentially fall on somebody.

And the surface, like with playing fields, the surface should be checked for unevenness.

But with artificial outdoor areas, it's more likely to be a bald patch like in our picture or a wrinkle where the AstroTurf is kind of moved a little bit and cause a small lump.

And also artificial outdoor areas.

If you can picture the one we had on the screen just a moment ago, they're surrounded by fencing, which should be maintained, all right? Fencing could cause injury if you run into the fence and it's not maintained properly.

And goals are often stored around the edge of the pitch.

It's often quite a very small space between some goals that are being left at the side of the pitch and the sideline of the pitch.

Quick check for understanding.

Which of these are potential causes of injury to be checked before an activity.

Is it A, litter and debris on a hockey pitch? B, somebody not following the rules during the game.

C, people using gym equipment without using the correct technique or D, checking, there will be enough space for the group size.

And note that the word before was highlighted in the question.

Right, there were two correct answers.

One was that litter and debris should be checked for before a hockey game, and that we should check that there's enough space for the size of the group, okay.

Now the other two, B and C, they are very relevant checks for keeping people safe.

However, that's during the activity and not before.

Final practise task for today's lesson.

Okay, let's imagine the situation.

The personal trainer or PT at your local fitness centre is going to teach a strength and conditioning class in the weights room.

I'd like you to, number one, state two different checks of the weights room they should perform before the class enters.

And number two, suggest the risk, which could occur to students if they do not carry out your suggested checks.

What might happen if they don't do the checks that you've suggested? Pause the video here and I'll give you some answers in a moment.

Okay, so what did you think about that? What should the PT be checking for? I asked you to state two different checks of the weight room that the PT should perform, and then the risk which could occur to students if they did not.

And here's some things you might have said.

They should check the equipment for faults.

If they don't, faulty equipment might break while a student is using it and fall on them or somebody else who's nearby.

They should check that there is enough space for the class size.

They don't want to have overcrowding, which could occur and a student might get struck by weights being used by another student, for example.

Okay, you don't want too many people in the fitness centre at the same time.

If there's not enough room to move, people aren't going to be able to perform properly and it may cause an injury.

They should check the floor for slip hazards.

Maybe somebody spilled some water in the previous group, or trip hazards, people have left out barbells, or dumbbells, or kettlebells or something on the floor, didn't put them away properly, and it leaves the hazard that somebody might trip over.

Check all students have been inducted to use the equipment.

If not, they may use poor technique, and injure themselves and they might need supervision throughout or maybe a spotter.

remember that phrase? That brings on to the summary for today's lesson.

And we've learned that participating in sport and physical activity comes with the risk of injury.

However, we can take several measures to reduce the risks and hazards.

Ensuring there is an appropriate level of competition using categories such as age, experience, or gender can help to keep participants safe.

And taking precautions such as using PPE and correct footwear for the activity will help reduce injury risk, as well as lifting and carrying items properly.

Sports halls, playing fields, artificial outdoor areas, swimming pools, fitness centres, were the five facilities we looked at today, weren't they? And they all have potential hazards to be aware of.

I hope this has given you food for thoughts for when you take part in your sports, or in your PE lessons or maybe even that you lead sport for other people.

The information in today's lesson can be really useful for helping make sure that they have a fun experience and a very safe experience at the same time.

I look forward to seeing you next time.